http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/events/detail-events/en/c/1440/

1. THE STATUS OF APPLICATION, CAPACITIES AND THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR
AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGIES IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION
PRESENTATION OF SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

2. SCOPE OF STUDY
 Scope, Objectives as Defined in ToR
 An objective, evidence-based, stock-taking exercise regarding the
current status of agricultural biotechnologies in the region
 Sectors: Crop, Livestock, Forestry and Fisheries & Aquaculture
 Categories: Applications, Capacities and Enabling Environment
 Geographical Coverage: 43 countries
 Asia (27): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, The
Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-
Leste, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.
 Pacific (16) : Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands,
Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea,
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

3. SCOPE OF STUDY
 Coverage- Low-Tech, Medium-Tech &High-Tech applications
as indicated in ToR
 ‘low-tech’ (such as development and use of biofertilisers or
biopesticides in crops/trees; artificial insemination in livestock;
use of polyploidy in farmed fish; development and use of
probiotics in livestock/fish feed; fermentation and use of
bioreactors in food processing); ‘medium-tech’ (such as use of
PCR-based disease diagnostic tools or DNA marker-assisted
selection – in the crop, livestock, forestry or
fisheries/aquaculture sectors; embryo transfer in livestock; use
of tissue culture-based techniques in crops/trees); and ‘high-
tech’ (such as gene editing techniques; genome sequencing;
genetic engineering; cloning of livestock).
 Sources : Secondary Data, Survey of Literature,
Comments/Opinions of Experts, Datasets/bases, Information
from contact points in different countries & data from FAO

4. TECHNOLOGY GRADIENT
Source: Teng (2015); P. 306

5. TECHNOLOGY GRADIENT & RELEVANCE
 The Gradient is illustrative and not exhaustive
 It captures range of technologies in all four sectors
 Cost need not increase with complexity . It may
decrease or become affordable
 In recent years technologies like genome
sequencing& genome editing have opened up new
avenues but technologies like biofertilizers, tissue
culture and biopesticides are still relevant
 Relevance rather than complexity or state of
technology is more important for harnessing
biotechnologies in agriculture

6. STATE OF APPLICATION

7. BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATION IN CROPS
26
18
17
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Tissue Culture Biofetilizers Biopesticide
Countries
Applications

8. GM CROPS AREA UNDER CULTIVATION
Country GM Crops Acreage (Million hectares) Quantity Value (US $)
Australia Cotton and canola 0.852 (2016)
4.2 million bales (2016), not
available for canola
73 million (2015)
Bangladesh Brinjal 0.0007 (2016) n/a
China Cotton, papaya, poplar 2.8 1.0 billion (2015)
India Cotton
11.2 (2016)
(96% of area under cotton
cultivation)
35 million bales (2016) 1.3 billion (2015)
Pakistan Cotton 2.9 (2016) 398 million (2015)
Philippines Maize 0.812 82 million (2015)
Vietnam Maize 0.035 n/a
Myanmar Cotton
.30
(93% of area under cotton
cultivation)

9. 40
34
25
24
10
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Virus
Resistance
Insect
Resistance
Fungal
Resistance
Abiotic Stress
Tolerance
Altered Fruit
Ripening
Distribution of GM Crops Traits
EventsinGMcrops
Traits
Other significant traits include Bacterial Resistance (9); Herbicide
tolerance (8); Modified Oil Composition (7) and others.

10. BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATION IN CROPS
17
12
6
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Marker Assisted
Selection
Genome
Mapping
Gene Editing
Countries
Applications

11. SIGNIFICANT APPLICATIONS IN LIVESTOCK
SECTOR
26
20 19
7
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Countries Out of 43
countries…
•. Field AI
programmes are
available in most
countries.
•Cloning in India is
applied to maintain
pedigree buffalo
stocks
•Other technologies
are at research
stage.

12. 13
12 12
11
10
8
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Livestock Vaccines (r-DNA based) in
Asia-Pacific Region
Countries
Diseases
Note: The figure illustrates the status of adoption of vaccines in
43 countries

13. DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS IN FORESTRY
20
15 15
12
9
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
No. of
Countries

14. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES FOR APPLICATION OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN FISHERIES &
AQUACULTURE
 Trait improvement using Marker Assisted selection for breeding in
commercial finfish breeds
 Suitable molecular diagnostic tools to track the diseases in brood
stocks
• Genomic techniques to improve rohu breeding stock
• Genome analysis of Trachinotus blochii and T.ovatus (Golden
Pompano)
• Gene sequencing of Labeo rohita and Clarius batrachus
• Snakehead mackerel
• Whole genome sequencing of the commercially important and
endangered fish, Asian Arowna (Scleropages formosus) & genomic
analysis for high performance Hapuku, Kingfish, and Abalone brood
stock
• Advancements in genomics of aquaculture pathogens

15. STATE OF CAPACITY

16. CROPS
 Public sector: CSIRO, CAS, ICAR, CGIAR, ABRI
 Private sector: Monsanto, Forage genetics International, DuPont
(Pioneer Hi-bred International Inc.), Florigene Pty Ltd., Dow Agroscience
LLC, Syngenta
 Some of the countries have biotech specific courses,
curricula and academic training in universities and
colleges
 Evidences of increase in higher education (Ph.D, M.Sc.,
M.Tech) in Agricultural biotechnology
 Public Research Institutions and Organisations in
various countries have undertaken agricultural biotech
research
 Infrastructure and capacity building is growing
significantly in some of the countries.
 However, many countries are making efforts to achieve
adequate capacity for agriculture biotechnology

17. CAPACITY IN DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS
 Biopesticides, Biofertilizers and Tissue Culture
 In many LDCs and island states the capacity at present
is limited to application of very basic tools of
biotechnology.
 Capacity in the private sector aims to engage
productively in these technologies and invest in R&D.
 Public sector capacity in this is well developed but that
is limited to few countries . In some countries,
universities and other research centers have the
capacity but that has to be expanded significantly.

18.  Genomic Applications and Capacities
 Genomic Editing and Mapping – 6 countries
 The technology is yet to be established
 Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) and Molecular
Breeding
 Extensively applied in various countries and wide-
spread
 Countries should collaborate in this and form crop
specific collaborative projects

19. LIVESTOCK
 The State of Capacity in animal Biotechnology in the
region is highly diverse.
 The region is found to be involved in marker assisted
trait improvement, maintenance of common gene pool in
breeding populations, genomics for integrating special
traits, embryo production and transfer technology,
Cloning, Genome research, Genetic Engineering,
Animal health components such as disease diagnostic
tools and vaccines.

20. FORESTRY
 Among 43 countries, the level of capacities in terms of the
available infrastructure for teaching, training and carrying-
out research in the domain of forest biotechnology, was
found to be varying from low to high.
 Some of the countries such as China, Japan, India, New
Zealand, Australia have dedicated large scale R&D
institutions to undertake research on forest biotechnology.

21. FISHERIES / AQUACULTURE
 The State of Capacity in agricultural biotechnology in the
Fisheries /Aquaculture sector of the region is uneven.
 The region is involved in marker assisted trait improvement
of breed stocks of fin fishes.
 The health management such as disease diagnostic tools in
aquaculture is noteworthy.
 The institutional infrastructure for capacity enhancement for
research, education and training in fisheries and
aquaculture is strong in those countries where there is
sufficient emphasis on fisheries and aquaculture production.

22. STATE OF ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

23. ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
 Enabling Environment (EE)means the overall milieu
for applying agri-biotech including policies,
incentives, regulation, collaborations and capacity
building
 The EE for agricultural biotechnologies is by and
large positive with countries like India, South Korea,
China and Malaysia giving it a thrust
 In many countries the EE is part of the innovation
ecosystems in agriculture and S&T
 About a dozen countries have direct or implicit
policies on biotechnology while many have
incorporated that in policies for agricultural
development

24. CROPS REGULATION-RATIFICATION OF CPB,
BIOSAFETY AND LABELLING
33
10
0
10
20
30
40
Party to CPB Non-Party
CPB membership
12
1
0
5
10
15
Process -
Based
Product -
Based
Regulation
9
4
0
2
4
6
8
10
Mandatory Non-Mandatory
Labelling

25. EE FOR CROPS
 Countries like Vietnam, Myanmar have gone in a
big way to promote crop biotechnology. There is
new dynamism in many countries that is reflected in
policies (e.g. SriLanka, Bangladesh, Iran)
 Emerging applications like genome editing pose
new issues in regulation
 Favorable policies in agriculture &seeds sector has
opened up new opportunities while private sector
seem to benefit most from this

26. LIVE STOCK
 The countries that encourage the biotechnology in
this sector have policies and frameworks to support
growth and value addition .
 As livestock is important in terms of trade and share
in GDP, the enabling environment is positively
impacted by this and this has resulted in support for
R&D and adoption.
 Capacity building and collaborations can enhance
EE particularly in many countries where the
potential is not harnessed fully

27. FORESTRY
 Many of the countries do have Forest Policy or Forest
Plan that provide for scope of application of forest
biotechnology, though not explicitly.
 In addition to the presence/absence of a Forest Policy,
the thrust towards development and application of forest
biotechnology also rests on its importance to address
the domestic demand as well as trade potential
 E.g. Japan has wide ranging application of forest
biotechnology owing to the fact that there is a huge
demand for quality timber.
 Similarly, in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia,
Australia and New Zealand, private sector is actively
involved in forest biotechnology

28. FISHERIES & AQUACULTURE
 The countries that encourage the sector have
appropriate laws and regulations to enable good
production system.
 The key issues of the sector to make it sustainable are
taken up through suitable institutional mechanism.
 Suitable policy and administrative support has
enabled foreign direct investment in aquaculture in
countries of the region.

29. KEY FINDINGS -I
 Agricultural Biotechnologies are widely applied in the region in
all the four sectors
 Low and Medium applications have been adopted in many
countries and genomics oriented applications such as
genome editing are getting firmly established in the region in
about ten countries.
 The variance among countries in terms of applications,
capacity and enabling environment is significant even as there
is new dynamism among selected countries in the region
 The state plays a key role in promoting agricultural
biotechnology and the enabling environment by and large is
positive

30. KEY FINDINGS-II
 Addressing needs in capacity is necessary for effective
utilization of agricultural biotechnologies in all the four sectors,
particularly in Least Developed Countries and Island States
 There is a new dynamism in the region in agricultural
biotechnologies and this can be sustained only if capacities
are created and enabling environments are conducive
 Most of the countries have biosafety/regulatory guidelines in
operation. There are challenges in regulating new
technologies/applications such as genome editing, New Plant
Breeding Technologies
 For fuller realization of the potential and to meet the needs of
small holder farmers and to address challenges of climate
change, initiatives are needed at regional and national levels.
 Technology Needs Assessment combined with capacity
building is necessary

31. THANKS
 Presented by Krishna Ravi Srinivas PhD on behalf
of research team from RIS
 Email ravisrinivas@ris.org.in